Golden Browns

Golden browns flutter

Like leaves on a tree

Waving good bye 

They strain to fly free

Like butterflies tethered 

Then to float free

To places unknown 

Like leaves from a tree 

Autumn leaves fall 

From the trees all around

Warm mellow colours

To swaddle the ground 

Wrinkled and crumbled

Food for the worms

Who nestle up warmly

In golden brown earth

Inspired by a walk through the local car park with the rows of Maple trees between the cars brandishing those beautiful golden brown hues that we associate with Autumn. The tune of the song Golden Brown by the Stranglers, one of my all-time favourites, came into my head. 

Having just checked the lyrics of the song to make sure I wasn't plagiarising I realised that I had been harbouring in my mind a mondegreen  - I didn't know there was such a word until I saw a thread on Twitter on the subject a couple of days ago. 

Mondegreen means -  A mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning, most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense. 

The second line of Golden Brown reads...

Lays me down, with my mind she runs

I have always heard this as ...

Lays me down, with my mancheros

"Mancheros" isn't even a word, I imagined it to be something like a Mexican ranchero...

There is a fascinating article in Wikipedia on the subject of Mondegreens which is worth a look.

PS

As a friend has reminded me there is more to the words Golden Brown than a poem about Autumn colours. For those interested in the interpretation of the Strangler lyrics check out this link... Coincidently the link includes a great video of the track with some beautiful images as background. Having listened to the words I still believe he is singing "Mancheroes"!